I have always felt that teachers could be more effective by spending less time on lesson plans and grading papers and instead leveraging technology (as businesses do) to analyze results and give one-on-one coaching to students. I would not want my kids getting their education from an online-only source, but it would be nice if web-based content and analytics could empower teachers to be more effective.
I read an article that gives me some hope for our education system in the July edition of Business 2.0 magazine. I could not pull this online, but here the jist:
Insight, based in Portland, OR just wrapped up its first year of online-only secondary education. Cost $4500/yr per student paid by Qiollayute Valley School District in the State of Washington. Purchased by the parent company of the University of Phoenix. Had 3000 applications the first year. Opening offices in Southern California and Wisconsin.
http://www.go2ischool.net/ (The Company)
A Bill and Melinda Gates study reports that 5 million high school-age students aren't enrolled in classes; about 80 percent of them dropped out not because of disinterest but to earn money or provide care for a family member. The online-only option is a great option for this group.
I wish a for-profit company would introduce a hybrid approach to web and brick-and-mortar education. Imagine kids could learn at their own pace and still get one-on-attention without holding everyone else back. If popular enough, content providers would be competing to deliver the best learning modules. What a nice thought.
Interesting post.
I'll be curious to see what xian, Teacher Man, extremewisdom, et al have to say about it.
Lunarpages offers free web hosting for public k-12 schools in the U.S.
Go here to check it out:
http://www.lunarpages.com/education/
Sounds like a great idea to me. There are subjects that aren't very conducive to learning online, but the "3 R's" could easily be taught with an online program. It's great to see some school administrators thinking outside the box...because the box we have now has a lot of room for improvement.